Youth able to order alcohol online
The legal drinking age is not always well respected online, according to tests carried out by the Swiss Alcohol Board.
It found that 34 out of 82 orders (41.5 per cent) carried out on the internet by minors in spring 2011 were successful. The results of this pilot test have been published in the latest edition of the board’s Alcohol and Politics magazine.
Under Swiss law beer and wine cannot be sold to anyone under 16 and spirits to people under 18.
In all, 39 of the 48 refusals were due to the buyers not fulfilling sales conditions concerning the legal drinking age. But the board did question whether the obligation for someone to reveal their real age was enough to deter the buying of alcohol online. It added that it therefore wanted to increase awareness among internet retailers and suppliers of the problem.
By comparison, the percentage of alcoholic drinks sold to minors from high street retailers in tests stood at 26.8 per cent in 2010, the Swiss Alcohol Board said.
In measures under review, the government wants to clamp down on offers for cheap alcohol.
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